Growing Vegetables in Small Spaces

June 26, 2016

Growing Vegetables in Small Spaces

I published an article a couple of years ago with 14 varieties of fruit and vegetables that suit smaller gardens, as well as another giving detailed information about container growing, also helpful if you’re growing on a balcony. The varieties might include tumbling container tomatoes or cut and come again salad leaves, strawberries or in slightly larger containers, leafy kale instead of whole cabbage.

We’ve practiced growing vegetables in small spaces in several community gardens over the years but in Gleann na Bearu, a community garden in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow with an overall space of 14m x 8m, we’re hoping it will give visitors and participants ideas they can replicate at home.

Growing plants in tyres

Last year almost all the growing in the garden took place in old tyres happily donated by the local tyre shop. The teenagers from the youth club painted them with donated paint (and anything else that didn’t move). We then lined the tyres to protect them from the rubber with weed membrane, then filled them with multipurpose compost and added the plants where they flourished. You can grow almost all vegetables in containers once they’re large enough and have drainage.

When the tyres were stacked three or four high to give the displays interest and save on soil, we filled them to around two-thirds deep with empty plastic bottles before adding the weed membrane, compost and plants. This worked very well and gave us another opportunity to talk about recycling and waste.

Gleann na Bearu Community Garden early June 2016

Raised beds

Over the winter months we added raised beds to the garden design, some large, some small, which helps to give visual ideas for people who want less of a upcycled look in their own gardens. These are very easy to work at and have helped ease childhood memories of stone picking out in the fields where their parents grew vegetables. The volunteers are instead discovering that growing food in raised beds is productive, they look tidy, are low maintenance and can be relaxing as the group work away outside.

Vertical Pallet Planters

This year we’ve started to think vertically. Mr G took apart a single pallet and rebuilt it into a vertical wall planter that for the moment we’ve added bedding plants to, grown by the community gardeners. Next year it might house salads, strawberries or herbs alongside more vertical neighbours.

I would love to share with you how Ian made the vertical planter pictured but every pallet is different so it really depends upon what you’re faced with. To make a planter like this one, the trick for anyone with woodworking skills is to assess the pallet they have in front of them and only remove the pieces of wood that are absolutely necessary.

Pallets aren’t easy to dismantle due to their curved nails so the less they’re messed around with the better. In this example Ian cut the pallet completely in half, leaving the top (the back) in one piece. He then used the pieces he’d removed to fill in the sides and make shelf planters in the front. Weed proof membrane was then stapled into each planting area before adding multipurpose compost and the plants.

Pictures speak louder than words so zoom into the photos if you can for a better look.

On another wall in the community garden tyres have been hung up, colourfully painted and planted, having had drainage holes drilled into them first.

Very soon we’ll be adding a small, safe pond to the garden that we hope will attract beneficial wildlife and insects. I need to research whether we can grow watercress for another edible addition to the garden; I’ll share with you how we get on with that project soon.

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Who is Behind Greenside Up

Hi, my name is Dee Sewell, a qualified horticulturalist, owner/manager of Greenside Up, vegetable garden tutor and author of this blog.
I began blogging back in 2009 when I started my Carlow/Kilkenny garden business and as a result the blog is now full of tips, tales, talk and tasty treats about Ireland, gardening, recipes, the environment, family life and community.
If you want to find more about how we came to live in Ireland and what we do, take a look in the About page or Contact me about how I can help you grow your own food.

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